White Carnations for Mother's Day Century Celebration

May 10, 1914 US President Woodrow Wilson officially set aside the second Sunday of every May to celebrate Mother’s day in North America. The day was founded for mothers grieving the loss of fallen soldiers, to promote worldwide peace, to advocate for lowering childbirth mortality and to improve sanitary conditions of women in the workplace.

The founder of Mother’s day never had children of her own. A church in West Virginia now renamed International Mother’s Day Shrine brings honor to Anna Jarvis's championing work. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140508-mothers-day-nation-gifts-facts-culture-moms/)

Anna objected the path Mother’s day celebrations took after 1914. The day was according to her not meant to be a commercial gold mine. She gave up everything to protect Mother’s day as a day to rethink the hardships of women, but instead got arrested for allegedly disturbing the peace and in 1948 she died penniless in Philadelphia’s Marshall Square Sanitarium.

Winning and loosing, two sides of the same coin. We’re living in a world that rapidly changes, with some things replicated. In a recent case 200 schoolgirls from Nigeria have been kidnapped. Soldiers are deployed. Millions of people die of HIV/Aids, malaria and cancer to name a few.

But the winning side is that when in need of a mother they can be found everywhere. They are in front of the stove, behind the desk, they volunteer and humor, nurse and care. Mothers know where to find lost items, how to stretch a meal, listen to everyday realizations and share secrets on mending a broken heart.

To the late Anna Jarvis and her mother initiating this day that has been celebrated a hundred times! Thank you. Women around the world will wear the white carnation to cry out their losses, but they’ll also celebrate their gains. 

Mothers gladly accept the gifts loaded with admiration and praise, knowing the bliss to be a woman, whatever it takes.